Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Sticker Removal

Getting old stickers off of vehicles
can be a bit of a nuisance. Our glass technicians are often asked by
customers if it's possible to transfer valid state park permits from
an old windshield to a new one intact, or how to remove a weathered
Metallica sticker off the back glass of their son's pickup they plan
on selling. We've heard tale of people using everything from Goo
Gone to sandpaper – most attempts ending in a mangled sticker and a
mess to boot.

There are a couple of sure-fire methods
to removing adhesives from your windshield, depending on whether or
not you intend on keeping the material intact. If you're trying to
get an expired permit off your glass scratch-free, you'll need to
pick-up a few razorblades from a local hardware store and some sort
of lubricating solution (we use American Glass & Mirror glass
cleaner, but Windex, or a mixture of ammonia and water would also do
the trick.) Simply soak the sticker with the glass cleaner
thoroughly, then run the blade on the surface of the glass along one
edge of the sticker. Once you've lifted a small portion off the
glass, gently pull up on the sticker while continuing to swipe the
blade along the removal line. Typically, you can get it off in one
piece without too much effort – if you're struggling, try further
saturating the sticker.

When trying to remove an item you'd
like to preserve, such as a current parking permit, the
process is fairly similar – you're still going to make firm
swipes with your razorblade. Instead of applying the glass cleaner,
in this instance you'll need 3M blue masking tape (there are probably
other brands that will function just as well – just make sure the
tape isn't overly adhesive, or you're going to have to figure out how
to get the sticker off the tape later on, and that's a whole other
headache.) Using strips of the tape, completely cover the item.
Now, use the same technique described earlier until the sticker has
been removed. Make sure you use new razors or you might end up with
a scratched windshield, or in the very least, wasting more time on
this project than necessary.

Once you've successfully removed the
sticker, you can try to adhere it to your new windshield. Generally
this works out, but you might need reinforce it with tape if it falls
off, or depending on who issued the sticker, you can sometimes exchange it for a new one.